NYC War Against Asian Longhorn Beetle Intensifies
You Could Get $250,000 Fine For Moving Infested Firewood

Dec. 23
Lou Young -Reporting

QUEENS (CBS) ― Imagine being hit with a $250,000 fine -- just for moving a piece of firewood.

It could happen if you're not careful.

As CBS 2 HD found out, the fine is in place to stop the spread of a potential natural disaster.

It's serious enough to send Joe Hartman up a tree in the dead of winter. He and his fellow climbers are looking for signs of an invader in a dormant stand of silver maples.

We're in the Forest Park section of Queens and the invasion is in its 11th year.

The Asian longhorn beetle arrived with some packing wood from China back in 1996 and spread quickly from the docks in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, out into Queens, Nassau County, Manhattan and Jersey City.

A second invasion point on Staten Island has now put trees in Essex and Union counties at risk. A breakout into the U.S. interior could eventually drain the color from American autumns.

"We would lose 50 percent of these trees and you would be looking at a devastated landscape," said Bram Gunther of the NYC Parks Department. "It would look post-apocalyptic."

The animal is studied in secure government bio-hazard labs and when it's spotted out in the world the feds clear-cut the surrounding area. Nearly 40,000 of our local trees have fallen since the war began.

And this time of year, the fear is firewood.

It might seem perfectly reasonable to bring wood like this to your second home in the Poconos of upstate, but if you notice neat little holes -- almost like the wood has been drilled -- means the beetle has been here. Consequently, moving wood like this out of the quarantine zone could get a $250,000 fine.

A representative from the United States Department of Agriculture puts it simply: One stick of infected firewood could bring it on.

"(It would be) a disaster, a major disaster" Joe Gittleman said. "The landscape would not look the way it does now."

It's something to keep in mind when you're gathering your Yule log this holiday. We are, after all, at war and the danger lurks even in the dead wood of winter.

Only registered dealers are allowed to sell firewood within our quarantine area.